William J. Janklow, 1939–2012

last updated 8 January 2015

Even before he became governor of South Dakota, Bill Janklow was famous for his hands-on approach to government. When a gunman took hostages in the state Capitol on July 4, 1976, the then attorney general brought a rifle to the scene. The hostages escaped without Janklow’s assistance, but throughout his career, he rushed to the scene of whatever fire, flood, tornado, or other disaster befell his state.

Born in Chicago, Janklow moved to South Dakota with his mother as a child, said the Rapid City, S.D., Journal. He made his name as a lawyer prosecuting American Indian protesters who rioted at the Custer County Courthouse in 1973. Janklow was elected attorney general the following year, kicking off a political career that included four terms as Republican governor and one as a congressman. Although he was an opinionated man who “rubbed opponents and sometimes political allies the wrong way,” the people of South Dakota “never grew tired of electing him to office.”

But Janklow’s political career was cut short in 2003, said the Los Angeles Times, when he blew through a stop sign on a rural road and killed a 55-year-old Minnesota farmer riding a motorcycle. By then the governor’s “habit for speeding was well documented”; he had received a dozen tickets between 1990 and 1994 alone. The accident led to a sentence of 100 days in prison for second-degree manslaughter, and Janklow was forced to resign his seat in Congress.